Category: Life

Writing time

Katie DLeave a comment

Up earlier this morning — at my laptop with coffee in hand by 5:35am, and that was delayed an extra minute by forgetting my notebooks in the other room.

Yesterday had a morning full of self-doubt and “this will all take way too long why even bother” feelings, in which I sat on the couch and scrolled social media and moped and hated things. Eventually I managed to kick myself in the pants and call out the moment for what it was. I stopped scrolling first, as I’ve learned about myself that often this is only making things worse. And I reminded myself of all the other logical things I’ve said to myself in the face of this feeling before, and that it would pass, and that the best thing to do was anything else — read a book, get up and move around, etc.

I’ve been struggling with finishing an outline for my first novel that I like, and originally I’d wanted to have it finished by end of January. Not hitting that goal was making me antsy, like I’m off schedule, like I’m off schedule and therefore never going to have the chops to make it as a published indie author because I can’t do this fast enough to make money off it…

Sigh. Chill. Relax. There is no race, or timetable. The timing of your life is perfect by default. Things take the time that they take.

As a family we went down to the harbor in the afternoon, where there is a place to fish next to a grassy field. Hubs set up his poles, the kids ran around like squirrels, and I brought a beach chair and a blanket and my laptop and notebook, and sipped a coffee and felt restored with the world and the muse.

(See pictures down below, or on my Insta, @kate.duttera.)

I switched to outlining by hand and felt myself getting back on track with it again. So, now that the coffee has taken hold, I’m off to do that again for this morning’s session.

It is now 5:45, and I have until 7am — or one of the kids wakes up early — to devote to quiet time, coffee, and my writing. I would like to knock out several more scenes in the outline, but just being up early and making the extra space for it today makes me feel like a winner.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8FPYtXAlvVD6AaPVqr0ZMJUlBky_E9cvA8jfs0/

Weekend Writing Schedule

Katie DLeave a comment

Oh the days when it was just me and the cat. I wish I’d had the motivation then to make my author career a thing. I could have accomplished so much more.

Writing time is at a premium when you have a family. Kids have this annoying way of being able to stay up until 1am and still waking up like everything is normal at 7am. It seriously cuts into my alone time.

And even though they would easily spend a full day playing video games and watching tv if we let them, especially now that it’s summer, round about noon my conscience starts to get to me that I’m letting their brains rot for my own purposes and we have to get outside.

To top it off, my oldest can read now, so writing sexy vampire smut scenes now has to happen in secret, like I’m at my day job and the boss keeps coming up to peek over my shoulder. Have a new tab open, my friends. Get ready to toggle quickly.

Even though I long for the freedom to spend a whole bloody Saturday challenging myself to write 10K or some other delightful goal, the fact that I can’t is actually probably a good thing. It means I’m motivated to steal every minute that I can — furiously scribbling on a legal pad during my lunch break at work, breaking out my laptop during the short and glorious minutes that the children are entertaining themselves without yet having resorted to violence, getting up out of bed for half an hour before the rest of the house on the weekends, even though sleep is lovely, to at least try to get a few sentences on the page.

Is it slow going? Yes. But every time I make the choice to spend time with my novel, to devote time to pursuing this goal, I gain momentum, I remind myself that this is a thing that’s important to me and worthy of my time. And even one new sentence is one I didn’t have before.

So even though I can watch authors on Authortube and start to feel the teensiest bit jealous of those who seem to have all the free time I want, I also know that jealousy is nonsense and we’re all just working with what we’ve got. It might take me a little longer to get my books written, but they’ll get there.

One freakin’ word after the other.

 

A note on mental health

Katie DLeave a comment

As writers, we are good at creating stories. Our brains tend to do it automatically. It’s what makes us good at what we do.

But it’s not very helpful when it comes to stressful situations in real life.

So remember — you’re a writer. You make up stories.

Not everything you think is true.

Just because your brain comes up with it doesn’t make it the truth.

Sometimes it’s just a story.

Otherwise there would be a much bigger problem with vampires around here.